This has been a recent topic of interest in our on-air discussions. Many good references are available for understanding this subject and for developing a design specific to your station configuration.
A very good, concise starting point is a 2-page article in the August 2006 QST, page 48, titled A Down to Earth View of Station Grounds. This article includes the following link to additional information from the ARRL Technical Information Service. Included there are links to a 3-part article series Lightning Protection for the Amateur Radio Station, published in QST in 2002, that gives detailed design methods and devices for protective grounding. This and earlier articles are available as downloadable PDF files.
Additional web links are included at the ARRL Technical Information Service page for other published articles and commercially available protection devices.
This year QST published (February & April issues) a 2-part article titled Lightning: Understand It or Suffer the Consequences. This article goes into some depth about the behavior of ground systems when exposed to lightning events.
Other links that may be of interest are:
Tower picture gallery that shows details of one ham's tower grounding design
A tutorial on NEC Article 810 – Radio and Television Equipment
Feel free to post your comments here. You can post as anonymous or with your name / callsign, if desired. You do not need to have a Google ID to participate.
1 comment:
If you're looking for copper supplies for your grounding designs, you might like this web site that W4UOA found:
http://www.stormcopperstore.com/
John
Post a Comment